


Moonless Night

by Mur



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Demon Hunters, Forbidden Love, M/M, Mentions of Death, Mutual Pining, demon hunter AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 20:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3181850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mur/pseuds/Mur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was bright eyes and enthusiasm, warm grins and a nose that turned red easily from the chill until they rubbed their noses together. His lips were for teasing and his laughter was a cherub's bell. He was heaven, in a person. Everything a demon could never have. Of course someone so perfect would turn out to be a hunter.</p>
<p>A series of vignettes in which our known third years are demons, and first and second-years are demon hunters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moonless Night

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a little thing I wrote on twitter and wanted to expand upon. Characters, pairings, and tags will be added if I end up updating with more stories. For now, have some AsaNoya.  
> Special thanks to NebulousDream for editing and proofreading this.

"When can I see you again?" Yuu grinned up at him, fixing his scarf, and Azumane's heart fluttered. He'd never seen a smile so perfect.

It was so bright, so radiant. It reminded him of heaven. Yuu was all of the things he missed about heaven in a person. He wondered to himself why he'd chosen to fall in the first place, when people like Nishinoya Yuu existed. He was small and bright, like a lantern guiding him through darkness he didn't realize he was lost in, nothing but smiles and excited ramblings the entire time they shared coffee.

It was odd, he supposed, to ask a stranger you met in the park for coffee, but for once in his very, very long life, Azumane Asahi felt daring. Maybe it was something about this human that made him want to _live_ , instead of just survive. Since falling, he'd kept to himself. He'd embraced his transformation into a full-fledged demon, but he rarely ever did much other than follow Sawamura around like a lost puppy. He'd leave the tempting, corrupting, and devouring of humans to others. But, there was something about this human that drew him in, and he wondered if, maybe, he'd be able to befriend someone. Maybe this one. Maybe this one could help him forget heaven and hell and suffering and the world around him.

 Maybe? No, the answer to any question about that matter was yes. That smile alone was enough to melt his heart, make him want to repent his sins and beg for forgiveness from the entire cosmos.

He couldn't call it a date, per se, it was more like a second meeting. They were acquaintances who ran into each other again, sitting in some tiny hole in the wall coffee shop talking about nothing of any substance, instead mutually enjoying one another's presence. The stools upon which they perched were old and worn, with tears in the cheap vinyl covers and obvious wear and tear on the rungs where they rested their feet (Azumane's feet on the lower rungs, nearly touching the floor, and Nishinoya's barely reached the second one, but that didn't quite matter so much, Azumane found it silly and even more endearing, for some reason he didn't quite understand). The radio behind the counter played some song by some band neither of them had heard of, nor did they care, for they weren't really listening to it. Azumane would rather listen to the voice of the stranger-turned-instant-friend before him.

They'd been sitting there for nearly two hours before they realized how much time had passed, many other patrons had already come and gone, and the forgotten coffee on the table (and hot chocolate for his shorter companion) had grown cold, and the hot chocolate had ceased to be, well, hot chocolate at all, and was merely a room-temperature chocolate-ish concoction filled with melted marshmallow.

He smiled back, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "Soon, maybe? I'd love to though. I'm um. I'm in town on business, so I'm not here for very long." Right, business. Eliminate the hunters, find the snipers, widen the space near the portal to their domain. But, would it be so bad to enjoy himself? He watched Yuu fiddle with his scarf for a few moments before leaning down, unwrapping it for him. "Oh, here, let me help you, it's cold out."

He tugged at it delicately, but as the fabric fell away, he saw a mark on his neck. No, not a mark, a tattoo.

He knew that symbol.

Anti-posession.

His heart dropped into his stomach. He prayed to no deity in particular (after all, he'd long since forsaken his god) that his stomach acid would dissolve it entirely. Then it'd cease to exist and he might be free from all of these horrible feelings that hit him all at once.

A hunter.

One of his targets, no doubt.

"Asahi-san? You okay?" He was still smiling. Of course, he had no idea he was a demon.

Asahi swallowed, tucking the scarf back in. "Yeah. I'll see you." He left without another word, his heart now sunk below his toes. Perhaps it was dissolving into the pavement below him and sinking into hell, at this point.

\--

The snipers were the worst. Daichi had warned him they'd be the biggest threat, and he stayed hidden as well as he could. If he stayed out of sight, slipping from shadow to shadow, he'd be safe for a time, but skilled snipers only needed a second, an instant, really, to find their target. Perhaps that was why this portal had remained so small for so long. He tried to hone in on the source of the bullets, chewing on one of his fingernails idly. With all of his nervous picking at them and awkward chewing, they'd almost completely ceased to be claws, and he wasn't quite certain if he should be proud of, or embarrassed by that fact.

They had a good hiding place, but he also had an idea of their general area, if they had a permanent "nest," so to speak.

He leaned out from the rooftop, letting the wind blow against his face. The night air felt wonderful, and he tried to bask in it. Maybe if he could he'd forget that face--

Golden eyes, closing in a smile, fingertips pressed against his cup, rambling on about how silly it was that people always tried to outdo one another to find music and such others had never listened to before, or how great it was to walk barefoot on the beach and feel the sand between your toes, how your feet sink in and make little puddles when you stand in one place and let the waves wash over your ankles, or how records are so weird to own, but record stores had this nice dusty smell that felt like home. His nose was red from the contrast of the cold outside and the warmth inside, and Azumane wanted to rub his own against it to warm it up, maybe even kiss it gently--

_Stop._

He shook his head. He had to focus on the task at hand.

He leapt forward, launching himself into the night air, searching for his prey.

\--

Tanaka sighed, staring down his scope. "Dude, are you sure they actually sent an assassin? I feel like I'm shooting at nothing."

They'd been camped up in their usual spot since sundown. Ryu brought snacks and a hot plate for them to heat up their dinners on, and blankets to drape across their laps. Extra silver bullets and blessed ammunition lined boxes and crates beneath the windows, and the two snipers were pleased with what had become their personal hideout. They'd argued for hours over naming it, since their actual hideout with the other hunters was already designated as "the crow's nest," they wanted to either be a dragon's keep or tiger's den, but both names sounded silly to all parties other than those who suggested them.

"He's there, I just know. I feel it," Yuu answered, scanning the landscape through his scope. He was looking for something, anything, to give him a hint of their enemy's whereabouts, until there it was in his scope, a flash of something, near the boundary. Of course.

"Wait, they're here. They--" he caught it in his scope again, and froze. This time he had a clear view, but he couldn't believe it. No, his eyes had to be deceiving him, but they weren't, and he knew it.

The claws, the pointed ears, the darkened eyes, they were new, but the face was eerily familiar.

It was him.

Asahi.

The creature looked up, and looked directly into the scope. Right _at_  him. He'd been seen.

_Shit. Shitshitshit._

He had to shoot now, but he couldn't bring himself to. He hesitated, finger trembling over the trigger. His throat felt dry, his heart was racing. Usually such easy kills brought him excitement, they fueled him, they thrilled him. Normally he'd be perfectly calm and collected in a situation like this, it should have been almost routine. He should have fired, but he didn't.

He was gone from the scope in an instant.

"Ryu, I saw him! Look sharp! It's at least an A-class, fully humanoid, probably intelligent, be on your guard," he warned.

Probably? Nah, very.

He'd held a conversation with the exact demon in question. He'd listened to his soft humming, watched him furrow his eyebrows in thought over silly questions like what his favorite food or his favorite books were, especially since the other seemed to blank out at them, fumbling for words as if he'd forgotten every piece of literature to come into being since the invention of the printing press (now that he thought about it, perhaps he had. If he had the chance, he'd tease him about it later, but he knew he didn't, so he settled for simply imagining such things). He'd chewed on his lip as he stirred already-cold coffee, and listened to his exuberant ranting about finding hermit crabs along the beach and in the shallows. The demon had actually reminded him of a hermit crab back then, shy and hiding in some kind of shell, but when he could get him to relax enough to poke his head out, the tiniest smile would be the greatest reward. It'd tug at the corner of his lips, and Nishinoya Yuu felt as though he'd just won every sport in the Olympics ever, he was such a winner, for managing to steal a glance at that smile.

His partner put down his soda, frowning. "Got it! We won't miss him again!" He smirked.

Ryu was always the coolest, most dependable person he could be around.

And now, Ryu was completely determined to destroy that person Yuu had spent the previous day with.

_Well, duh. He's a demon. The enemy._  Kill or be killed, and all that.

He cursed at himself.

Yuu bristled at a crashing sound. It was close. Too close. It could have been downstairs. He reached for his dagger, and the sound of a knock at the door made them both turn. They jumped as it was blown off its hinges, realizing that yes, their nest had been discovered, they'd have to eliminate their intruder by any means necessary.

Forgetting the dagger, he reached for the holy water instead, but Azumane darted forward, knocking them both back with a burst of wind that tossed them both to the floor. He was upon them in an instant, nearly perching on Yuu's chest, as terrified brown eyes gazed into piercing red.

He looked so frail, so soft, and Asahi felt his heart would melt into a puddle of despair and evaporate into an air of nothing. This kid, his face was hardened, fierce, determined to destroy him, but he could only see the smile from the previous day. The lips that had teased him, the nose that grew red from the cold until they rubbed their noses together. The soft, golden eyes that smiled so genuinely for him, kind and thoughtful, hanging onto his every word. They were the leaves of autumn, tumbling down around him at their own pace, laughing on the wind, whispering nonsense into his ear with every smile. Heaven, in a person.

He couldn't do it.

He released his arms, removing his knees from the sniper's chest, he stood up, easily dodging the splash of salt Ryu had tossed at him on reflex.

"You spared me," he whispered. He'd seen him. He knew he could have taken the shot, destroyed him, and now he very nearly wished he actually had. "So I'm returning the favor."

The words hung in the air, evaporating as the demon fled in a breath. Yuu stared at the empty doorway, barely daring to breathe even as Ryu helped him to his feet once more.

He had spared him.

The demon had spared him, so why wasn't he happy?

He hadn't made the kill, but he knew he should be happy just to be alive. Staying alive meant more chances to make more kills, more demons to stop from killing more humans. The longer he lived, the better. He didn't want to die, but he also couldn't find it in himself to be grateful, or even angry, for the mercy.

He gripped his chest as he reached for his weapon. They'd have to find a new nest soon, now that the demons knew their whereabouts. They'd have to climb farther and higher, to find the perfect vantage point, but at that moment, he couldn't even think about such things. Instead, he gripped his chest, and stared out into the moonless night.

His heart hurt.

And it would, for a long time.


End file.
